This is a custom artwork order that I finished up not too long ago. The client wanted to have a piece made for her husband's 70th birthday.

(click image to enlarge)In this piece he is pictured as a little boy. He used to have a pet lamb, and he currently runs a cat rescue (hence all the cats) and he works at a library (that's why he's reading). He also used to have a tree house as a young boy so I added the ladder. This piece was a lot of fun to work on, loved adding all the details.

It's a 3 part series on fine crafts. Here's a little text from their web site: Craft in America television viewers will travel throughout the United States visiting America’s premier craft artists in their studios to witness the creation of handmade objects, and into homes, businesses and public spaces where functional art is employed and celebrated.

It says it's on at 8pm on the Craft in America web site -- but my PBS has it on at 1am-4am. Thank goodness for Tivo! Check it out, it looks good!

I had a crazy busy day today and now I have a migraine. I was all ready to snuggle down and enjoy On The Lot and I think they changed the format! It got all "American Idol" all of a sudden, and I don't mean that in a good way. What happened to them showing the creative process like they did in the first two episodes? Where did the footage of them making a movie in 1 hour go? Is this how all the rest of the episodes are going to be? Watching the finished product movies and then a long hour to see who gets voted off. I don't like it!! Grrr!

Bernie and I talked a lot today as she drove to Chicago, with all the animals -- I was trying to keep her awake. While we were talking I could hear lots of puppies having their own conversations in the background!

The total driving time was 10 hours because of making stops to pee-pee puppies, change litter, feed and water etc. But everyone made it to Chicago safely and the final critter count for this trip was 52! That's 52 little animals all going to loving new homes! yay!!! Next week she will drive to Wisconsin with more fur babies.

I called Bernie to let her know the donation amount has now passed $1,000 and she was overcome with emotion. She is so grateful to everyone for their help. Every little helps so thank you so much!

Bernie will be driving back to TN on Saturday all day then will post an update of her trip to her blog! Thank you to everyone for positing the 6 degrees badge to your blogs. It is helping so much!

I made a new years resolution in January to buy one new cute shirt a month. Well here it is almost 6 months after I made that vow, and I finally bought something. I couldn't pass up these cute T's from Harrilu. Can't wait for them to arrive!

Today started out with sadness. Bernie called me (we talk everyday). She called with some very sad news about a very bad person who has done some very bad things to animals. She and I were both crying on the phone. How can people be so cruel? I just don't understand it. Bernie deals with this everyday but I just can't take the stories. I don't know how she does it.

But then through our crying we both started talking about her upcoming transport and the animals that can be saved.

Next week, Bernie is going to drive 60 little lives to Chicago and Wisconsin to be adopted -- these are little puppies and kittens who were on death row and would not be alive had Bernie not pulled them from animal control. These 60 fur babies will be adopted out at no kill humane societies, when she does this, all the puppies and kittens find home within 3 days of her taking them there! There is hope along with the sadness.

But Bernie needs our help. The cost to run the transports will be around $1500. The air conditioned cargo van to rent costs $600, gas is $240 to Wisconsin and back and $180 to Chicago, she goes through approx 40lbs of Dog food A DAY and the transports take about 2 days each min. Then 20lbs of cat food a day + medical certificates and shots for all the animals. You can imagine how it adds up. She gets no monetary help from the humane societies and relies on outside donations alone.

Here's what you can do to help. Any small donation, even $5 or $10 will help. If we can get 100 people to donate $10 each that would be wonderful! If you aren't able to donate money, please consider placing this 6degrees badge (at bottom) on your blog. The more people who find out the good work Bernie does, the more people who can help. To add the badge to your blog, just click the "add to site" link at the bottom of the badge.

Last night I got two amazing packages in the mail. I love getting goodies!

The first was a box of my new line of 26 cards with The Greeting Place. The line is called Sweet & Sassy. All the cards came out great, colors look wonderful! They aren't on their web site yet, but will be soon.

The second box was a kit of papers and supplies for May from Scrap in Style TV. Oh boy!! What a super cool box. It even had lime green polka dotted tape in it. I was super excited. I use scrapbook papers to "clothe" my figures in my artwork (along with fabrics sometimes) so as I am opening all the papers I am exclaiming "this will make a cute skirt" and "perfect for an apron!" It's going to be fun to play with these!

(click image to enlarge)This is an image I just finished up last night for a German company called Teneues. I thought it would fit the IF theme with a slight stretch (there is a sign in the window of the beauty shop). Also maybe with this quote: "Harriet, I am starting to see signs that your gardening is damaging your cuticles"

Today was a bit of a sad day. My Dad's kitty Friday went over the rainbow bridge this morning. Friday was either 20 or 21 depending on who you ask in our family :) Mom thinks he was 20, Dad and I like to think he was 21. He is already missed.

I found Friday on a Friday morning in 1987 when I was 12, he was already about a year old. It was the first week of 7th grade and he appeared one day at the bus stop. I decided we would call him Friday until we thought of a better name - we never did. He was my first found kitty in what will probably be a long history of finding homeless cats!

I remember bringing him in the house and he freaked out, running behind all the furniture, couldn't wait to escape. So we started feeding him outside. In the winter he would venture in and sleep on my Dad's favorite leather chair for a few days then get really anxious to be let out. We tried for years to make him an indoor cat but he would have none of it! He would get really nasty if we kept him in too long! Finally when he was 16 he was ready to live inside and enjoy retirement and he spent the last remaining years enjoying lounging in the sun, my Mom and Dad at his beck and call.

As all pets are loved, they are also mile markers in our lives. Friday was there for for me through more than half my life: middle school, first boyfriends, highschool, college, my first jobs, my marriage. I miss you already big boy!

I went to the dentist today. I actually really like going to the dentist, it feels good to have my teeth checked and nice and bright. Since I am a good girl and floss every night, I get lots of accolades from the hygienist. Probably one of the reasons I like going is all the praise I get! It is the closest thing I get to a report card as an adult and I like to get an A+!

After I went to the dentist, I went over to my friend Martha's to hang out and chat with her. I love seeing her, always makes me feel better! I was feeling kind of down yesterday but now I feel good again!

Martha and I checked out Infusion Tea which is a new-to-me tea place. Cute and nice atmosphere. I even liked my ice tea, I don't usually like ice tea so that is saying a lot that I liked it!

On my way home from Martha's I braved nasty traffic to stop by Sam Flax so I could pick up my favorite pens. All my pens are down to nubs so I need ones with new tips. I plan to get a lot of studio work done this week so I need fresh pens!

I am super excited to be a part of the team. It looks like it will be a lot of fun! Since I am not a scrapbooker in the traditional sense, they told me I could do my regular stuff and show some of my fun techniques to their scrapping/crafting audience. I am excited!!What's Scrap in Style TV?

It's a web based TV show and networking community for crafters and scrapbookers, that is super stylish of course! Even if you're not a scrapbooker there is sure to be lots of crafty goodness available. Don't forget to check it out!

I couldn't resist taking a little video of Mabel and her nightly bathing routine. Sorry so many pet posts this week! I have been gone so long, I am on a pet posting binge! But I thought this video might give you a little giggle! What a fatty!

The US Postal office is raising the price of stamps Monday, stamps will now be $0.41.

Grrr! Again!

More and more I think I'll just switch to DHL for all my custom artwork shipping. I usually ship the smaller boxes Priority Mail but by the time in I factor in insurance and delivery confirmation DHL is cheaper and usually gets there faster, the only bad part is then you have to buy the boxes.

I entered Toby in the Lucky Dog photo contest. These are amazing doggie biscuits. All natural stuff, good yummy biscuits, Toby says so. You can enter your puppy too, don't need to have the biscuits to enter!

PS. I am actually getting work done today believe it or not -- between taking photos of Toby and my skirt. I have been writing my new book proposal. Yay!

PPS. Anyone out there watching Shear Genius??? I like it. Way better than Top Designer, not as good as Project Runway but I'll take it for now until PR comes back.

..... that I am wearing a skirt today. This is a banner day! I almost never wear skirts anymore. Stanley scratched my legs really badly today while I was doing yoga. He thought we were "playing cat tree". It hurts too much to wear jeans + it's hot and smoky out. It's a skirt day!

This morning I took Toby to the vet, he needed to go to get his eye tear production checked (he has dry eyes which is common with pekes). So I thought it would be a good as day as any to take him. I knew I wouldn't get much work done today since it's my first day back home.

Toby wasn't happy about the vet visit at all, but we were thrilled to see his eyes are now making more tears on their own. The medicine we have been using is working! yay!

I also got Mabel checked, and she has another bladder infection. Grrr! We stay so on top of it -- testing her every couple weeks. She has been good with no infection for a long time so I guess I can't complain. I came home with antibiotics for her and hopefully that will clear things up.I also picked up pill pockets for my Dad's cat Friday who is 21 (yes 21 years old!!!). I found Friday when I was 12 and he was already a year old, can you believe it! Friday is now having a hard time eating enough food so he been prescribed an appetite stimulant but he won't take his pill. We are going to see if pill pockets will do the trick. Mabel loves them and gobbles them right up, but then Mabel will eat anything, she is a piggy. Here's a photo of her to the left to prove what a piggy she is!

So today was all about the pets! Other than pet caring, I checked my email (almost done with it all!) and made a few phone calls and now I am sleepy again. It always takes me a few days to recover from a long teaching stint. See you tomorrow!

I am home and all the adrenaline is gone, gone, gone. I am exhausted! Spent the evening catching up on my TV shows. While in my zombie state I watched: Sopranos, Entourage, Heroes and The Soup. Off to bed! See you tomorrow!

I finished up my last class today at Art and Soul. It was a two day class called Beyond the Unexpected creating cigar box 3-d collages. The episode where I show a couple techniques from this class will air tomorrow again on Craft Lab on the DIY Network at noon EST tomorrow!! So check it out!

I won't officially be teaching again until October at Art and Soul in Portland! I *might* do a September class in Miami but I can drive to that so that doesn't count. I have lots on my list to get done this summer and I want to make sure I have to get it all done and *maybe* also find time to experiment and play too!!

A few things on my list for the rest of this week is:

find new homeowner's insurance for our house (AllState dropped all FL homes... grrr!)

start really super duper promoting my custom artworks, I want to get to a point where I have a steady flow of custom artwork orders. At least 3 orders a week is my goal!

Do an illustration promo and send packets off to possible companies for licensing

Make an appt with some kind of natural healer person who can help me with my migraines. I had one every day since last Wed. ugh!

Start on the two book proposoals I need to get done.

Make appt for Toby to go to the vet to have his eyes checked for proper tear production

Whew! that should be enough to keep me busy don't you think!I printed out my boarding pass and now I am allready to head home tomorrow. Hopefully no flight delays and I will get home on time!

Today I taught the first day of my Beyond the Unexpected workshop. It's a two day class. There are just 5 of us in the class so it's nice and cozy!

Tonight I got a lot of my left over supplies packed up to ship back home. I'll send them off tomorrow so I can make sure DHL actually picks them up. Then bring the rest of the stuff home in my suitcase on Tuesday.

I'm getting all ready for the finale of The Amazing Race! I think this round I want the beauty queens to win. They really grew on me this season.

Tomorrow's my last day of teaching and then packing up to come home. So I'll see you when I get back!

Almost done with day two of classes and I finished up my third workshop just now. I am teaching poppet® puppets tonight and then that will be my 4th class in two days! Good thing I am not teaching tomorrow or I would have no voice left!

I just got my class roster for tonight and I am excited to see Andra is in my class. Andra babysat Stanley for us when we went to go pick him up from Atlanta. She is such a sweetie and I am sure I'll get all squealy and excited reminiscing about Stan and what a little baby he was!

Off to order more food from the hotel children's menu... tonight maybe it will be mac and cheese? I don't know!

I'm here in VA and already taught my first class at Art & Soul. I have an evening class tonight and I am already tired! i am sure I will perk up once I get going again. Trying to grab a quick dinner from room service. They had a very limited vegetarian choices so I ended up ordering grilled cheese off the children's menu. At least it's cheap!

Yesterday I had kind of a wild ride over to the hotel from the airport. I arrived in Newport News and grabbed an airport cab. It was an old and cruddy cab, but cabs always seem to be old and crappy at least all the ones I get so I wasn't worried. The guy drives for about 10 minutes and then says "I need to stop at the gas station to pick up some coolant"

So I am thinking um OK, either this guy is really going to get coolant or he's going to get duct tape and rope and I'm going to end up at the side of the road somewhere. Luckily he came out with the coolant and pours the WHOLE bottle in the engine and then throws the bottle in the front seat and starts driving again. I said to him "do you think maybe you should call me another cab?"

He says no it will be fine and drives for another 3 or 4 minutes then turns around and tells me he is taking me BACK to the airport so I can get another cab. Oh boy!!And did I mention it's like 90 degrees out and his car has no AC.

So he takes me back and then I get out and haul my luggage into another cab and then the guy tells me "no charge ma'am"

Oh wow! OK thanks for being so generous!

It was so funny!

Well it's time for me to eat and run off to my next class. I am teaching day + night classes today and tomorrow. Saturday I will be a zombie, good thing I am not teaching that day! See you later!

Today was full of errands and laundry and packing. I'm getting everything ready to leave to teach 5 workshops at Art and Soul in VA. There's still room in my classes if anyone gets a last minute urge to sign up!! I won't be back to VA until at least 2009! If you are in the area and not taking classes, please come by for the vendor event Saturday night, tons of super cool stuff and artists. You don't want to miss it.

Thankfully my dad shipped 2 big boxes off for me while we were in Italy. I should have 60lbs of stuff waiting for me when I get there. I am so glad I shipped so much ahead -- it has made packing today much easier. I even had room for snacks and things to stock my hotel room with to eat for lunch. I *think* there is a Target within walking distance to the hotel but I can't remember for sure. I won't have a ride until Lesley gets there on Friday night so I wanted to bring provisions just in case!

I am also bringing things with me to work on. I have the day off Saturday before vending and I thought that would be a perfect day to work on the book proposals I need to get done.